How do I create this look in illustrator....

First...

There is nothing wrong with a 1-bit diffusion dither object being raster, as far as printing results is concerned. Such images date back to the days of MacPaint and Hypercard. They are same-size (historically usually 1-point) pixels, randomly distributed at varying frequencies to suggest tones (as opposed to individual printer spots being combined to build varying size halftone dots).

So if the tiny squares are vector, yes, they are scaleable. But so are 1-bit pixels. When you scale a 1-bit raster, you're scaling square pixels, which are printed as squares. So a scaled 1-bit raster image is just as "resolution independent" as a bunch of vector squares.

Second...

This effect was employed in illustrations and designs since the very beginning of desktop publishing. For example, I frequently used it in the 80s thusly:

1. Draw a vector path of any shape in FreeHand.

2. Copy it to Photoshop. Blur it. Convert to 1-bit using diffusion dither. Save it as TIFF.

3. Import into FreeHand. Stack it below the object for which it served as a glow or drop shadow.

FreeHand had the ability to apply any color to a 1-bit or grayscale raster image, and the ability to set the white pixels of a 1-bit image to transparent. Illustrator didn't gain those abilities until decades later.

So it's not oppressively tedious to use that method nowadays, even in Illustrator. (And frankly, that's the way I'd do it.)

Third...

Illustrator sorely needs to provided a diffusion dither option in its Rasterize command for 1-bit color depth (as I've been arguing for years) instead of its lame pattern diffusion. Then this effect could be applied easily and quickly to any object, either as a "nailed down" rasterization, or as a live effect.

However...

You can simulate a vector diffusion dither pattern that you can apply to any path by combining several Scatter Brushes and storing their combined application as a Graphic Style:

1. Draw a 1 point square.

2. Store it as a Scatter Brush. Set the Spacing and Scatter settings to Random. To constrain the pattern to one side of the path to which it is applied, set the low limit of Scatter to zero.

3. Duplicate the Scatter Brush two or more times, changing the Spacing and Scatter upper limits in each duplicate so as to make each duplicate Brush increasingly sparse. In the example shown, the first Brush is named Scatter Brush 1 and has its upper limits for Spacing and Scatter to 300. This Brush was duplicated twice, and those two values doubled each time. But of course you can use whatever settings work for the effect you want.

4. Draw a temporary path with a 1-point stroke. Apply Scatter Brush 1. Select the Stroke Appearance and duplciate it. Apply Scatter Brush 2 to it. Duplicate the Stroke Appearance again, and apply Scatter Brush 3 to it.

5. Drag the whole path and drop it into the Graphic Styles palette to define a new Graphic Style. Now you can apply the whole Appearance stack to any other path(s) with one click.

Being Brushes, the fineness of the pattern can be adjusted by changing the weight of the strokes:

And, of course, you can apply other effects to the Brushes and strokes involved. For example, set the Colorization Mode of the Brushes to be able to change the color of the dither pattern; and/or apply Transform Effect to offset the pattern from the object to which it is applied (as for dithered drop shadows).

JET

The look you are trying to get can be achieved in Illustrator... The way I would do it (and just tested to be sure it would work) was using one of the decorative brushes.

If you (using your pen tool) draw the shape you are roughly trying to create and then apply one of the confetti looking brushes to it (it will be all confetti colored but  don't worry) you will have a good start, then apply several more layers with the pen tool creating more curves that flow with the way you want the design to look. make sure that as you apply layers you put more toware the top, than the bottom so that the top will appear more "filled in".

When you are done, expand all the lines, select all, and recolor them.

You can then use pathfinder to "merge" the pieces together and mask the area at the top to give it a flat edge. It would look like this:

So creating that type of texture is not that difficult if you know  a couple tricks... If you would like the image that I built to use a a base, send me an email address and I will send it to you.

Try creating a new symbol of some random dots then use the Symbol Sprayer Tool. Fine tuning of the dots can be done with the other symbol-altering tools such as the Symbol Shifter Tool.

You can live trace in illustrator your photoshop graphic of the dissovle texture to get this to be vector.

I usually almost always recomend to keep things vector, but in this case I recomend Photoshop >> Image >> mode >> Bitmap and choose 1200 dpi. Then save as .tif and colorize this in photoshop.

I had a project using a smiliar texture, and find that such a fine texture using vector made

1. your files slow
2. The sandpaper look plug up when you scale this. When you scale this, the amount of negative and positive space does not print out proportionately. I changed the advanced print settings in illustrator, to all bitmap and 1200 dpi, but could not keep a consistent look on this texture thourghout the project.

Depending on your usage you may want to go with live tracing this if you only have one graphic to do, but if you will be using this across a large project, the colorized tiff would be reomend.

Vector is great, but I found that tiny sandpaper likes textures like this do not print well, and the holes plug up when they are fine. If you are going for a coarser look than your sample, vector can hold up better.

The fusia brand is the project I had this happen with, on the edges of the cream colored banner.

Sorry guys about the above link, first time poster....